Lawmakers at the Capitol could be charged with seditious conspiracy and felony murder. What they could face. AND: ”A pardon carries an imputation of guilt. An acceptance of a pardon is a confession.”

 

Republican Lawmakers could face:

1. Litany of criminal charges. Particularly given their position as lawmakers. 
2. What kind of evidence presented that they aided the insurrectionists? That could come from the terrorists looking for a deal with prosecutors. (People charged with seditious conspiracy and felony murder could be looking for a deal.)
3. They could be expelled from Congress. 

A bank robbery by 2 or more people is a criminal conspiracy. If a bank teller is murdered the gunman is charged with murder and the getaway driver is also charged with murder. 

 

"At least 170 people are currently under investigation in connection to the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, and officials expect that number to “grow to the hundreds in the next coming weeks” — a criminal probe that the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., has described as “unprecedented, not only in FBI history, but probably DOJ history.”

Some 111 people were arrested or charged for actions connected to the Capitol siege as of Thursday morning, according to the Prosecution Project, an open-source research platform that monitors criminal cases involving political violence. Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said that prosecutors were considering a growing set of charges against those involved in the riot. He said that the crimes they could be accused of span from the relatively minor trespassing dozens of people have already been charged with; to theft of mail, digital devices, and possibly national security information from the Capitol; and up to assault of a law enforcement officer, seditious conspiracy, and felony murder. “The gamut of cases and criminal conduct we’re looking at is really mind-blowing and that has really put an enormous amount of work on the plate of the FBI and field offices throughout the entire United States,” Sherwin said at a press conference this week, warning that the cases could take years to prosecute. “This is only the beginning.”

Held nearly a week after the attack on the Capitol, the briefing by Sherwin and Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge for the FBI’s Washington, D.C., office, was the first major update on the status of an investigation occupying hundreds of law enforcement agents and prosecutors nationwide and that has already turned up more than 100,000 pieces of digital media evidence. Lawmakers and other officials have also called for separate investigations to shed light on a historic breach of the Capitol that remains largely unexplained. After the U.S. Capitol police and law enforcement agencies across the district were caught woefully unprepared for last week’s assault, Tuesday’s briefing sought to address criticism that the FBI and the Department of Justice were too slow to respond with arrests and charges. And it came as critics were contrasting the kid-glove police response and relatively minor charges filed to date against the rioters to the treatment of Black Lives Matter and other protesters who have been violently arrested and harshly prosecuted for years.

Amid warnings of more violence to come in the next days and conflicting calls for unity versus accountability, the country is bracing for what will likely be a yearslong effort to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the January 6 attack, harrowing details of which continue to emerge more than a week later. But many who have pointed to the glaring inequities in law enforcement’s response to the Capitol assault as compared to recent racial justice or anti-Trump protests have also warned against calls for mass conspiracy prosecutions or any expansions of law enforcement resources, civil rights erosions, and domestic terrorism and anti-protest laws. Such measures, they said, will inevitably be turned against people of color and government critics legitimately expressing their dissent. As they grappled with the question of how the justice system can meaningfully address the dramatic surge in far-right and white supremacist extremism in this country, many cautioned that accountability is better sought from those who enabled and coordinated its rise, rather than through the mass criminalization of all who embraced it."

MORE AT:

The Intercept

DOJ Is Considering Charging Capitol Rioters With Seditious Conspiracy, Felony Murder